y only see what seems to be, and occasionally what really is. They simply rely on the philosopher/rulers to be knowledgeable and always act in the best interests of the community as a whole. The parable of the cave is evident here. Socrates tells Glaucon a tale of men in a cave. These men have been “chained foot and neck since childhood” (Plato 514a). The chains prevent them from turning around; they can face only forward towards a wall. Directly behind them is a low wall, behind that a road, and behind that a burning fire. People pass by on the road between the backs of the men and the fire, casting shadows onto the wall directly in front of the men. Sometimes these people carry things, and on occasion they speak. Since the men cannot turn their heads, and never have been able to, they must assume that the shadows they see on the wall are real images. Likewise, they assume that the noise they hear is made by the shadows on the wall and not by the passersby. These men “would firmly believe truth to be the shadows of artificial objects” (Plato 515c). Socrates then proposes that one of the men is set free, drug from the cave and told that all he now sees is truer and more real than what he saw before. Once accustomed to the real world, Glaucon agrees with Socrates, that the man would “suffer anything rather than live like [he had before]” (Plato 516e). Additionally, both men agree that if the man was to return to his companions, they would find him quite mad, and “they’d say that he came back from above with ruined eyes and the trip wasn’t even worth the attempt” (Plato 517a).According to the Myth of the Metals, the people in the Republic, are divided into three distinct classes: philosopher/rulers (gold, wisdom), warriors (silver, courage), and moneymakers (bronze, temperance). When examining the parable of the cave, the philosopher/rulers can be likened to those ...
